


And So, The Sensei Supports His Students

by ihopethelightwillshineupon



Category: Naruto
Genre: 5+1 Fic, 5+1 Things, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Chakra exhaustion, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 Bonding (Naruto), Dai-nana-han | Team 7 as Family (Naruto), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hatake Kakashi Needs a Hug, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt Hatake Kakashi, Hurt/Comfort, Mostly Canon Compliant, Platonic Cuddling, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Sick Uchiha Sasuke, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug, Whump, and fuck kakashi's canon shitty apartment, fuck everyone’s canon living arrangements though, kakashi tries to be a good teacher, lots and lots of fluff, sakura works to get stronger than the boys, sakura's parents are shinobi, sasuke lives in the uchiha compound, sasuke tries to deal with trauma in a healthy way, set in some vague time between the wave arc and the chuunin exams, sharingan training, sick haruno sakura, soft team 7, very mild angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25916452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihopethelightwillshineupon/pseuds/ihopethelightwillshineupon
Summary: Hatake Kakashi is a man who never wanted a genin team in the first place. And he certainly wasn’t prepared to actuallycareabout the brats.Unfortunately for him, his brats are hilarious and kind and amazing. And they’re so small, and they’re alone and they need support. Which makes itreallyhard to truly dislike them as much as he expected he would.Or: 5 times Kakashi shows that he actually genuinely cares about his kids, and 1 time his students show that they care about him a lot, too.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 142
Kudos: 1061





	1. The Blankets

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo boy, this story has been a work in progress for a _long_ time… Hashtag perfectionist struggles. But I’m super proud of the end result, and I’m finally ready to start posting! Yaaaay~
> 
> As mentioned in the tags, this is a 5+1 fic (which is _by far_ my favorite kind of fic). It’s set in some vague time after the Wave Arc, but before the Chuunin Exams – so Sasuke’s awakened his Sharingan, Naruto has used the Nine-Tails’ chakra for the first time, and Team Seven has grown pretty close in the aftermath of their first near-death experiences. I mostly keep to canon in this fic, apart from the fact that I think that everyone’s canon living arrangements are bullshit. So I will be completely ignoring those. :)
> 
> I'm pretty sure I didn't mix in any Shippuuden spoilers. I do make some references to Tenzou/Yamato, Kushina and Minato and Kakashi's old teammates (who aren't fully introduced until Shippuuden), but they don't really spoil anything and it doesn't really matter if you don't know who they are.
> 
> I've also rated this fic G, but there's some blood (in very non-graphic descriptions) and some mild language (like 'damn', 'shit', 'Hell') in later chapters. Just in case that's not really your thing :D
> 
> Oh, and just one more thing: if you _somehow_ read this as any type of ship between Kakashi and any of his students, then I will hack into your phone and delete your Flappy Bird high score. You have been warned.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contrary To Popular Belief, Team Seven’s Leader Does Actually Care About His Students

If there was one thing that Kakashi knew about his Team Seven, it was that this team had the worst luck in all of Konoha. There were enough examples he could give of that – one of those being their spectacularly horrible trip to Wave a few weeks earlier – but he was currently too tired to think about it much. Because their two-hours-long C-ranked escort mission had escalated into an unfortunate encounter with some missing-nin robbers and had ended up taking nearly an entire day. And now they were _finally_ back in Konoha, and Kakashi really just wanted to get home and go to sleep.

His genin seemed to share that thought, judging by the way they dragged their feet. Naruto had recovered from his post-battle exhaustion quickly, but Sasuke and Sakura still looked deadly tired. They’d each gotten caught up in their own fights, and they’d really given it their all. They were both shivering as well; that was a little weird, since it was a warm summer night. Naruto didn’t seem bothered by it, though, so he’d given his jacket to Sakura.

Honestly, it all could’ve been worse. At least everyone had gotten home safe.

And it was at that ironic moment, when that relieved thought crossed Kakashi’s mind, that Sasuke collapsed.

Kakashi saw him fall from the corner of his eye. He managed to catch his student before he hit the ground. “Hey,” Kakashi said, gently shaking Sasuke’s shoulder. “What happened? You’re not injured, are you?”

Sasuke’s eyes were closed, but he was squeezing them shut too tightly for him to be unconscious. He was breathing heavily, and shivering. Still shivering.

When he didn’t reply, Sakura shook her head. “I don’t think he’s hurt,” she said. She, too, sounded vaguely out of breath. Naruto had taken a step closer to her, as if he was afraid that she’d suddenly fall over, too. She swallowed, and continued: “We’re both really tired, though. And cold. I think it’s…”

“Chakra exhaustion,” Kakashi finished her sentence, nodding. He took off his glove and carefully pressed the back of his hand against Sasuke’s forehead. His skin was just a little colder than would be expected in this warm weather – the effect of his body not having enough energy to properly keep warm. But he could still move all of his limbs, which meant that he still had enough chakra to function. He could probably sleep it off within a day, maybe two days; Kakashi wasn’t entirely sure how quickly Sasuke recovered.

Just to be sure, he checked Sakura’s temperature, too. She was cold to the touch as well; Kakashi could feel her shiver underneath his hand.

Sakura was looking increasingly anxious, so Kakashi gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it too much – I don’t think it’s too severe,” he said. “You’ll need to stay in bed tomorrow, but you’ll be fine after that. We’ll call off training so that you two can rest.” When she nodded, apparently understanding that everything would be okay, he continued: “Let’s just get you home for now. Naruto, can you carry Sasuke?”

Sasuke grumbled and shot Kakashi a glare through his eyelashes. “I can walk just fine,” he protested. The fact that his voice shook, didn’t really help in getting his point across.

“I’m sure you can,” Kakashi replied with a smile, “but it’s for the best if you spare your energy.” He paused to think for a second. “Naruto, you take Sasuke home. I’ll go with Sakura and explain to her parents what happened.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, sensei,” Sakura said. She was pretty much leaning against Naruto at this point. “My parents aren’t home, anyway.”

That stopped Kakashi dead in his tracks. He indeed remembered her talking about how her parents were out on a mission and would be gone for another full day. Which meant that she would be all by herself while she recovered – and so would Sasuke. And Kakashi didn’t like that thought.

In all honesty, they would probably be fine. His little genin were pretty resilient, and Kakashi himself had slept off chakra exhaustion all alone plenty of times when he was their age. Still, it _sucked_ to be home alone when you weren’t feeling well, and the idea of making his students go through that just didn’t sit right with Kakashi.

The hospital wasn’t an alternative – Kakashi had enough experience to know that resting in a hospital was much worse than resting at home. He couldn’t pile all of his students into one of their homes so that he could keep an eye on them, either; that just wouldn’t be practical. Which really only left one option.

“Never mind,” he said, “I’ve got a better idea.” He carefully scooped Sasuke off of the ground. “Come along.”

Kakashi ended up carrying Sasuke, despite the kid’s new set of weak protests. Naruto followed him, carrying Sakura piggyback. Kakashi checked on the two of them from time to time – because he could easily see this situation turn into a fight – but Naruto seemed to understand that this wasn’t the right moment to tease Sakura, and Sakura seemed too tired to protest being carried by him.

It was a ten-minute walk from the gate to the apartment building. Kakashi walked this route pretty much every other day, but his students had probably never been here before. “Where are we?” Naruto asked as they entered the apartment building. He was looking around curiously, as if he would recognize his environment if he just looked for long enough.

“We’re almost there,” Kakashi replied – he was only half paying attention, because his brain was working at top speed. “We’ll need to climb some stairs, so be careful, okay?”

“That’s not really a good answer, sensei,” Naruto muttered, but he followed Kakashi up the stairs without saying much else. It wasn’t until Kakashi fished his keys from his pockets and unlocked the door to his apartment, that stuff clicked in Naruto’s mind. “Ah! I get it!” he said. “This is your home, isn’t it, Kakashi-sensei?”

“Be a little more quiet, please, Naruto,” Kakashi replied. “My neighbors might be asleep already.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”

Kakashi opened the door and let his students in. Something in his mind was still screaming that this was a _very bad_ idea, but he tried his best to keep those thoughts quiet. His kids didn’t have anywhere else they could realistically go. Still, he really hoped that they wouldn’t ask any uncomfortable questions. He might have to kick them out if that happened.

He laid Sasuke down on the couch in the living room, and then turned around to Naruto – the kid was standing in the doorway, clearly unsure what to do. “Naruto,” he called, and pointed to the closet in the living room. “There’s some blankets in the closet; please make sure your teammates are warm, okay? Oh, and there’s a futon in there, as well – I’d appreciate it if you’d take it out and put it on the floor, so that Sakura has a place to lie down.”

Naruto nodded, grinned, and snapped a salute at Kakashi. “Yes, sir!”

While Naruto got to work in the living room, Kakashi went to the kitchen to make tea – at least his kids would feel less cold with something warm to drink. He opened the windows as well, to let in the warmer air from outside.

He returned to the living room with two steaming mugs, and found himself pausing in the doorway. Sasuke was lying on the couch, underneath an old blanket with a faded shuriken pattern. Naruto was balanced on the edge of the couch, next to Sasuke’s feet. The futon was laid out in front of the couch, with the short side of the futon against the long side of the couch. Sakura was sitting on top of it, wrapped in another blanket, with her back against the front of the couch. Their sandals were neatly arranged off to the side where no one would trip on them.

Kakashi secretly smiled underneath his mask, because the three of them looked so _cozy._ “Here,” he said, handing a mug of tea to Sakura. He gave the other mug to Sasuke, who sat up to take it. “Careful – it’s hot.”

As the two of them slowly sipped their tea, Kakashi turned to Naruto. “Say, Naruto? I need to ask something of you.”

“What is it?”

“Could you go report our mission to the Hokage?” Kakashi asked. “I didn’t want to drag your teammates into the office, but it still needs to happen.”

Naruto jumped up from the couch. “Consider it done!” he declared, and plopped down on the floor to put his sandals on. “I’ll go report. I’ll be back in a second – wait.” He suddenly hesitated. “ _Should_ I come back? Or should I just go home?”

Kakashi smiled at him, and shrugged. “Do whatever you want. The rest of your team is already here, anyway. And I have another spare futon lying around somewhere.”

Naruto beamed, because of course he would. “Okay, then! I’ll be back soon!”

“You can come in through the window when you get back,” Kakashi called towards Naruto as he sprinted towards the front door. He only got a quick “sure!” and the slamming of the front door as a reply. Kakashi sighed at the noise, but it was a fond sigh. A loud Naruto was a happy Naruto, so Kakashi found it very hard to sincerely feel annoyed.

Kakashi stood in the doorway, comfortably leaning against the doorframe. “So how about the both of you?” he asked, studying Sasuke and Sakura. “How are you doing? Everything okay?”

Sakura shrugged and took a sip of her tea. “My muscles kind of hurt, so it’s nice to sit down.”

Kakashi hummed. “That’s part of chakra exhaustion, yeah,” he replied. “It should get better if you don’t move around too much. Warn me if it gets worse, though; I have some painkillers that you could take.” He knew from experience that the ache from an exhausted body combined with the muscle soreness that sometimes came after an intense fight, could get nearly paralyzingly horrible.

She nodded. “I will.”

“Anything else to report? How about you, Sasuke?”

“Feeling better,” Sasuke replied, half mumbling into his tea. He wasn’t looking at Kakashi. “There’s just something I don’t understand.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“I don’t… understand why you’re letting us stay here.”

Oh. Well, that made sense, since Sasuke was almost _painfully_ like Kakashi was at his age. “I don’t like the idea of you recovering in an entirely empty house,” Kakashi replied, “with no one to help you if you need anything. Because I know what that feels like, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone else.” He smiled. “I really don’t want to force you, though. If you want, I’ll bring you home. That counts for you, too, Sakura.”

They both shook their heads. “I don’t want to be home alone like this,” Sasuke said. He was still making intense eye contact with his tea, but his shoulders visibly relaxed. Kakashi thought that he was going to leave it at that, but then he quietly added: “Thanks.”

Sakura nodded along with him. “Yeah. Thank you, sensei.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to thank me.” He needed to change the subject, _quickly,_ or he’d probably explode from the warmth that was building in his chest. “By the way – you’ll never finish that tea if you just keep talking. I have a book about dogs; maybe I could read that to you, or something?”

“We aren’t toddlers,” Sakura murmured, at the same time that Sasuke said: “I like cats better.”

Kakashi raised his eyebrows at them. “So?”

They hesitated for a moment, before Sakura took a sip from her tea to hide behind her mug. “Okay, then.”

Kakashi got the book from his bookcase, and sat down on the floor with his back against the couch, next to Sakura. The book was non-fiction, so the texts were a little dry and boring, but that was kind of the point, wasn’t it?

Sasuke was the first to start yawning. He’d already finished his tea, and he was lying down again, comfortably wrapped in his blanket. He rolled onto his stomach not much later, his arm dropping down from the side of the couch, and Kakashi knew that he was asleep. Sakura was still sitting upright, her back against the couch just like Kakashi was sitting, but he was sure that she’d dozed off as well – she was leaning heavily against Kakashi’s side, far too heavily to still be awake. Her hand was still loosely gripping the ear of her mug; Kakashi carefully freed the mug from her fingers and put it on the floor a bit further, where it wouldn’t be knocked over.

He closed the book silently and sighed. Well, it looked like he was stuck here for a while, what with Sakura leaning against him and Uchiha ‘Light Sleeper’ Sasuke lying right behind his head. He might as well give in. He leaned his head against the couch behind him and closed his eyes.

Before he could fall asleep, someone climbed in through the kitchen window and patted light footsteps into the living room. Kakashi half-opened his right eye. Naruto was standing in the doorway, grinning almost impossibly widely. He stuck up a thumb at Kakashi – he’d managed to report to the Hokage, then.

Kakashi nodded, and whispered that Naruto could sleep here, if he wanted – there was a second futon lying underneath Kakashi’s bed. Instead, Naruto shook his head, still grinning. He walked over to Kakashi and sat down next to him on the floor, on the side opposite from Sakura.

Smiling, Kakashi leaned his head back against the couch. He didn’t really care, anyway. Naruto fell asleep faster than he did, somehow ending up sprawled out across the floor and Kakashi’s legs.

Kakashi’s genin recovered quickly – or, at least, they recovered faster than Kakashi’s back did from sleeping on the floor.

He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing that always bugged me a little about Naruto (the manga/anime, not the character lol), is that we never really get a description of what chakra exhaustion actually _feels_ like. Like, we see characters collapse or be affected by overuse of their jutsu plenty of times in Part 1 and Shippuuden, but we’re never told how that feels, exactly. So I decided to put my own spin on it – I hope that it all made sense!


	2. The Guitars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local Sensei Tries To Train His Student In A More Creative Way, Accidentally Reveals Far Too Much About Himself

Before Team Seven, Sasuke’s house was always too quiet. He’d always come home to a dark and silent house, in the middle of a dark and silent compound. He was a bit of an introvert, so he naturally preferred silence over loud noise, but after such a long time, he just… didn’t like it anymore. With time, he noticed that it had become easier to appreciate noise again, and that was the story of how he hadn’t murdered any of his teammates yet. (Naruto. Specifically Naruto.)

Regardless, even after the deafening yet comforting loudness that usually came with training, Sasuke still came home to a silent house. He hadn’t known what to do about that, at first – he’d still been stuck in the mindset that it would probably always be that way.

But then, Naruto had more or less invited himself into Sasuke’s house, and Sakura had come along, and they’d been loud and overly curious and Sasuke had kicked them out after ten minutes… but that was the first time that there was noise in his house in _years._ And he came to the bizarre realization that he had _missed_ it.

So the next day, he invited Naruto over – just him, because it was easier to yell at one person at a time. He’d been surprisingly respectful with his questions and immediately shut up about stuff when Sasuke asked him to. They drank some tea, played a card game, and that had been enough socialization for the day, so Sasuke asked Naruto to leave. “You could come over to my place, too,” Naruto had said with a grin, “if you want. I’m not as good at cleaning as you are, though, so prepare for a bit of a mess.” The realization had once again hit that Naruto lived all on his own, too. Instead of communicating that _properly_ , Sasuke had mumbled “yeah, sure” and shut the door in his face.

The day after that, he invited Sakura over. She’d apparently picked up on the questions that Sasuke didn’t want to answer after the first time he’d kicked her out, so she didn’t pry for answers, anymore. She wasn’t a dumbass, and she’d realized her mistake, so Sasuke found it in his heart to forgive her for her annoyingness earlier.

That system continued, for a while. Sasuke slowly and reluctantly accepted that he liked the company, and the other two apparently didn’t mind being around him, either. They usually met at Sasuke’s house, because Naruto’s apartment was a dump, and Sasuke didn’t like socializing with Sakura’s parents. Sasuke’s tea ran out thrice as fast as normal, but the other two often brought over snacks, so he forgave them. They played board games that had been hidden in some drawer for years. Suddenly, this house that had been so difficult to live in, became a place where he actually _liked_ to be.

During this time, Sasuke also started training his Sharingan more. There wasn’t a lot of room for that during team training, so he trained for one or two hours in the afternoon, along with Kakashi-sensei. Somewhere along the line, he’d made the decision of training in the empty streets of the Uchiha compound, simply because it was convenient to be near home. Kakashi didn’t seem to mind.

Right now, Sasuke was sitting in the grass on one of the training fields, trying to catch his breath after an intense sparring match. Naruto sat next to him; he had a bruise on his forehead where Sasuke had landed his winning hit. The bruise was already healing before Sasuke’s eyes.

Naruto grinned at him. “You _do_ realize that I let you win, right?”

“Hm-m. Definitely.”

“Don’t be so skeptical. You know I’m right.” He got up from the ground and held out a hand to help Sasuke up. “You wanna come over to my place? I accidentally bought enough cookies to last me a lifetime, and I definitely need to share them.”

Sasuke accepted his hand and got up. “You can’t _accidentally_ buy that many cookies,” he replied, dusting the grass off of his pants. “Besides, I can’t go, anyway. Today’s Wednesday, remember? I’m training with Kakashi.”

“Oh, yeah. Totally forgot about that.” Naruto shrugged. “You could come by after dinner?”

“I’m not going somewhere to eat after I’ve already eaten.”

“Alright, then. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Naruto replied with a smile. “Good luck… training your eyes, or something like that.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

Sasuke watched Naruto run off, probably to ask Sakura to come over. Meanwhile, Kakashi approached Sasuke. He held up a hand to wave. “Yo, Sasuke,” he said. “Is it okay if we start training a few minutes later? I need to pick something up first.”

Sasuke shrugged. “Sure.”

“Okay, then. You can walk back to the Uchiha compound; I’ll meet you there.” Kakashi then body-flickered away. Sasuke waved at Sakura and Naruto and then started his walk back home.

A few minutes later, Sasuke was sitting on the porch to his house, waiting. It was pretty warm outside – Sasuke appreciated the shade that his house cast on the porch. He could see the entrance to the Uchiha compound from here, and he could also see how Kakashi body-flickered through the entrance. He was holding two oddly-shaped bags; probably weapons, or at least that made the most sense. Sasuke held up a hand to greet him.

“You know,” Sasuke said as Kakashi walked closer, “you don’t have to keep body-flickering everywhere. I know it uses up a lot of chakra. You could just walk and spare some energy for training.”

Kakashi laughed. “I have plenty of energy left, thank you very much. Anyway,” he said, and put his bags down on the porch beside Sasuke, “I was thinking we could skip the physical training for today. There’s something else I want to try out.”

Sasuke raised one eyebrow when he didn’t elaborate. “Okay?”

“Yep.” Kakashi handed one of the bags to Sasuke. It was heavy in his hands, but not heavy enough that it was difficult to carry. “Here. That’s your weapon.”

Still thoroughly confused, Sasuke unzipped the bag. What was in the bag, answered none of his questions. He held up the object, frowning at his sensei. “It’s a guitar.”

“Correct. It’s mine, so be careful with it,” Kakashi replied with a smile. He, too, had opened his bag and held a matching guitar on his lap. “It’s a bit weird since you’re used to combat training, but I think this’ll help you train your Sharingan, too.”

Sasuke eyed the guitar skeptically, but he didn’t voice his doubts just yet. He’d wait it out for a couple of minutes, and if he decided that this was a waste of time, he’d just challenge Kakashi to a duel. Maybe he’d even catch Kakashi off guard and get a _real_ fight going for once.

Kakashi took his silence as approval. “Okay. Let’s get started, then.” He looked up at Sasuke. “You know how to hold a guitar, right?”

“I’m not an idiot.” Sasuke had seen people play before. His right hand was supposed to hold the neck, and his left hand plucked on the strings. He did as much, and then frowned when he noticed that Kakashi held his guitar exactly mirrored. “What are you doing?” he asked, trying his best not to snap.

Kakashi laughed sheepishly. “You’re right – that _is_ how you’re supposed to hold a guitar,” he said. “Just… hold it the other way for now. Left hand on the neck, right hand on the strings. We’re doing fingerstyle – it’s a different style of playing.”

Sasuke turned his guitar around in his hands. “Fine.”

“Look – okay, I know this is confusing. I’m a jounin-sensei, not a guitar teacher. Please just trust me on this.” He put his hands to the strings, lightly running his right fingertips across the strings. “Just watch. And activate your Sharingan.”

Sasuke did as much – finally he was doing _something_ that had to do with training – and watched as Kakashi began to play. His right hand moved incredibly quickly, plucking at the strings with a speed that was probably impossible to follow with non-Sharingan eyes. His left hand moved across the neck of the guitar in a different rhythm, with different movements. This way, he produced a high-tempo melody. As Sasuke followed the movements of Kakashi’s hands, he was slowly starting to understand what he was getting at.

After a minute or so, Kakashi played the last notes and looked up at Sasuke. He smiled. “Did you get all that?”

“Yeah.” Instead of talking more – because Sasuke was slowly getting tired of talking – he plucked at the strings and played the first few notes of the song. His movements were lots slower than Kakashi’s, because he’d never played guitar before, but he was playing the notes perfectly.

“Very good,” Kakashi replied with a nod. “See – that’s what I mean. You’re training the copy ability of your Sharingan. With time and practice, you’ll be able to play faster. Just like you can copy an opponent’s fighting style or jutsu, but your body may need training to actually carry it out.”

“Hm-m. I get it.” Sasuke fidgeted with one of the strings. “Do you want me to play the rest of the song, too?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Sasuke played the rest of the song, picking up tempo as he got a bit more used to the movements. As his fingers danced across the strings to play the last few notes, he looked up to Kakashi. “Was that good?”

Kakashi nodded. “Very good.” He pulled his own guitar closer to himself, ready to play again. “Let’s try an even faster song.”

“Even faster?” Was that even possible?

He laughed. “I’ve been in a lot of places on my missions. When I was first learning to play, I sometimes came across a street musician playing something ridiculously fast, and I’d copy whatever they were playing. I don’t really do that anymore, because it’s not fair to copy someone else’s work if you can do it yourself – but I can still play those songs.”

“Okay. Let’s do it, then.”

They sat there for another hour or so, playing songs that got quicker and quicker each time. Sasuke could play the last song at about half speed, which was annoying because he wanted to play faster, but it surprised him regardless that he could copy the songs at all. He’d never thought to use his Sharingan for something else than fighting.

Kakashi told him that with practice, he’d be able to play songs at the same time and at the same speed as Kakashi could. With more practice, he’d even be able to predict his movements and play a note _before_ Kakashi could. Sasuke had figured so, but it was nice to know that Kakashi knew what he was doing.

When he’d copied the last song in its entirety – the thing was almost ten minutes long – he put the guitar down and got up. He turned off his Sharingan, too, because it was getting a bit tiring to see everything in perfect detail. “I’m going to get some water. You want something to drink?”

“Hm? Oh – no, I’m good.”

Sasuke went inside and got a bottle of water, and he also grabbed a soda from the fridge, because he knew that Kakashi liked soda and also that it was too warm to sit outside for a long time and not drink anything. Once outside, he threw the can towards Kakashi’s head. He caught it easily.

Sasuke sat down next to him. “Drink up.”

Kakashi didn’t protest. “Thanks, I guess.”

He opened the can, but then hesitated for a moment. Sasuke sighed; “Don’t worry, I won’t look at your face.”

Sasuke kept his eyes on the other side of the porch and drank his water. The tips of his fingers stung a bit, so it was nice to press them against the cold bottle. Like that, he stared ahead, thoughtfully.

“Hey, sensei?”

“Hm?”

“I was wondering,” Sasuke said, frowning towards his water bottle, “how do you know so much about how the Sharingan develops? Since yours isn’t… _yours._ ”

Kakashi laughed. “One does their research when there’s someone else’s eyeball transplanted into one’s face, you know.”

“Obviously,” Sasuke replied with a scoff. “I meant that none of the books mention guitars.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah.” Kakashi was silent for a bit. He sounded uncomfortable – Sasuke suddenly felt a bit guilty for asking. They’d been so at ease all afternoon.

When Kakashi replied, his voice was carefully steady. “I… had a friend who was an Uchiha. I heard him talk about this training method once – he was complaining that his neighbors were so loud all the time. So I remembered that, and I thought it might work for your training, too.”

Sasuke stared down at the strings of his guitar. It was jarring to hear Kakashi talk about a friend – he rarely shared anything personal – and it was even more jarring to hear him speak about this friend in the past tense. “This Uchiha friend,” he said, “is it the one from your eye?”

When Kakashi hesitated, Sasuke carefully continued: “You don’t _have_ to tell me. I get it.”

“Yeah. Thank you.” He sounded relieved. Sasuke made a mental note to leave the subject alone unless absolutely necessary.

Thankfully, there was no space for another silence to fall, because two loud and familiar voices suddenly sounded from the gate to the Uchiha compound. Sasuke looked over – Kakashi had just enough time to pull his mask back up – and saw Naruto and Sakura approaching. Naruto waved enthousiastically. He was holding a plastic bag with something square-ish inside.

“Sasuke!” he shouted when he was a bit closer. “We’ve decided that we’ll never finish the cookies by ourselves, so you’d better eat some, too!”

“It took you an hour to figure that out?” Sasuke asked, moving over a bit so that Naruto and Sakura could sit down on the porch as well. Naruto cheerfully dumped eight boxes of cookies onto Sasuke’s lap. “Hey!” Sasuke protested. “Jeez – you weren’t kidding when you said you’d bought enough to last forever. How’d this even happen?”

“Accidentally,” Naruto replied with a grin.

“This doesn’t happen accidentally, and we’ve _discussed this already_ \--”

“Anyway,” Sakura cut in, “what are you even doing? Are you just taking a break, or have you been sitting here the whole time?”

Sasuke could see Kakashi smile from the corner of his eye. “We’ve been training,” Kakashi said, “and pretty intensely, too. Sasuke, do you want to show them what we’ve been working on?”

“Sure.” Sasuke never turned down an opportunity to show off. He placed the boxes on his lap onto Naruto’s lap, earning his protests, and grabbed the guitar. Kakashi did, too.

“Let’s do something easy,” Kakashi said, playing lightly with the strings. “I’ve got an idea.”

He started to play a melody – a cheerful, up-tempo one, but not as fast as the insane stuff Sasuke had seen him play earlier. After a bit, he repeated the melody again, and Sasuke, understanding what he was getting at, activated his Sharingan and played along.

Sasuke kept playing his melody, and when it was time to repeat the notes again, Kakashi played something new, harmonizing with what Sasuke was playing. It sounded nice. Happy. Sasuke glanced towards Naruto and Sakura and was glad that he now had their flabbergasted faces memorized perfectly.

Sasuke copied the new notes that Kakashi was playing, and he played something new again. This time, as Kakashi played his new melody, he carefully sang along.

His voice was a little scratchy, but it was soft and pleasant to listen to. He was _definitely_ a better singer than Sasuke ever could’ve guessed. Startled, Sasuke almost dropped his guitar, but he managed to keep playing, if only for the way his teammates simultaneously breathed “whoa”.

Now more confidently, Kakashi sang a bit louder, so that the words of the song were easier to hear. It was a love song, and _of course_ it was – what else to expect from the guy that carried around romance novels everywhere he went? Sasuke found himself laughing out loud, and then realizing how long it had been since he’d last done that, and then grinning stupidly because this was a _good moment._

When the song ended, Kakashi put his guitar down and laughed sheepishly. “Sorry, Sasuke. You wanted to show your teammates what you learned, but I guess I kind of stole the show a little.”

“That was _amazing_!” Naruto yelled before Sasuke had a chance to reply. “Sensei, you should be a music teacher!”

“I’m… not sure if that’s a compliment or not…”

“Hell _yeah_ , it’s a compliment! So did you practice this?”

“They didn’t,” Sakura said, staring at Sasuke as if in shock. “Sasuke was just as surprised as we were. They did the whole song out of the blue.”

As Naruto shouted some more about how awesome their little performance was, Sasuke turned to Kakashi. “I didn’t know you could sing.”

Kakashi smiled and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, it’s just a habit I picked up. I don’t like silence much, you see.”

The four of them stayed on that porch for the rest of the evening. And when Sasuke’s teammates left and he was alone again in his dark and silent house, he softly sang himself a song.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’know what: I thought this chapter was going to turn out a lot worse than it actually did. Because I have only played guitar in music class, and I _definitely_ don’t know fingerstyle. But I tried anyway, and I’m… honestly pretty proud of how this turned out. I like the idea of using the Sharingan for non-combat uses.
> 
> I had a bit of a struggle deciding on what instrument to use, because a lot of the Naruto world consists of pretty traditional stuff (like the weapons), but I eventually decided on a guitar regardless, because they also have TVs so I feel like it’s pretty reasonable to assume they’d have modern instruments as well.
> 
> Oh, and PS: our boy Kakashi can definitely sing and you can fight me on that.


	3. The Fox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White-Haired Konoha Man’s Life Potentially In Danger; First Thoughts Go To Student

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! In this chapter, I refer to some characters who aren’t introduced until Shippuuden, so I made a handy little list of names in case you haven’t seen Shippuuden yet (no spoilers):
> 
> ~Kushina: Naruto’s mom;
> 
> ~Minato: Naruto’s dad;
> 
> ~Tenzou: one of Kakashi’s friends in ANBU (he’s introduced in Shippuuden as Yamato).

Something was very, _very_ wrong.

Kakashi bolted upright in bed, woken from his sleep by a _bad_ feeling, like a punch to the gut. His conscious mind didn’t immediately register what was going on, but deep down, he recognized this feeling. He’d felt this before – twelve years ago, and then again on the bridge in Wave a few weeks ago.

He sensed the Nine-Tails’ chakra.

Something was wrong with Naruto.

Kakashi put on his uniform at breakneck speed. The last time that Naruto had used the Nine-Tails’ chakra, it was when he was seriously threatened – there was a very real possibility that his life was in danger. Kakashi put on his weapons pouch and jumped out of the window.

Naruto’s apartment wasn’t very far from Kakashi’s. He took a shortcut across the roofs, not even caring about the noise that he was making in the middle of the night. His chest never stopped feeling tight, but he couldn’t tell at this point whether he was sensing the Nine-Tails’ presence or if it was just his overwhelming worry that made it hard to breathe.

His guard was up by the time he landed on Naruto’s windowsill – the kid was really bad at protecting his home from intruders, but on the other hand, thank _God_ that he slept with the windows open. He’d expected to walk right into a battle, but the apartment was quiet and dark. Kakashi thought for half a second that he’d finally lost his mind, but then he noticed that Naruto’s bed was empty. He pulled out a kunai and hopped into the room, and then--

“Stay away from me!”

Kakashi started forward at the sound of Naruto’s voice, coming from weirdly nearby. He swept his eyes across the room – his Sharingan finally detected movement in a dark corner. Naruto was sitting on the floor, trembling horribly and not looking at Kakashi. The room was empty otherwise.

“Go away!” Naruto’s voice sounded choked up, but he was practically growling. It finally clicked that the words were aimed at _Kakashi_ instead of some unknown enemy – Naruto wanted _him_ to leave.

“Naruto,” Kakashi tried, hoping to at least communicate that he wasn’t a threat. “It’s just me.”

Naruto finally turned around. It was too dark to properly see his expression, but there were tears glittering in his eyes, vaguely reflecting the moonlight. “I know,” he replied quietly. “Leave anyway. Don’t come near me. I… I might be dangerous. The Nine-Tails…” He cut himself off with a sniffle. “Please just go away, sensei.”

Kakashi took a step back, just to show that he wasn’t going to approach Naruto if he didn’t want that – but he’d had no intention of leaving, and now even less so. He could no longer feel the presence of the Nine-Tails’ chakra, nor could he see the reddish energy covering Naruto. As far as he could tell, he was completely safe from the Tailed Beast at the moment, which made it even more concerning that Naruto seemed to think that he _wasn’t._

He put away his kunai and sat down on the floor, hoping that if he acted calm, Naruto would see that it was okay to calm down, too. “I came here because I sensed the Nine-Tails’ chakra,” he said. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t--” Naruto took a shuddering breath and wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his pajama shirt. “It… It activated by itself. In my sleep, out of my control. And I don’t know how, or why, or when it will happen again and I…” He physically bit down a sob. “I just really don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Kakashi frowned. Okay, that _was_ weird; a Tailed Beast’s chakra normally only activated by itself as some sort of protection, for as far as he knew. But Naruto hadn’t _needed_ any protection. Another reason for the chakra to present itself, was in moments of extreme stress, but Kakashi couldn’t see that as an explanation either – Naruto had been sleeping, after all--

Wait.

“Naruto,” Kakashi said softly. “You didn’t happen to have a nightmare, did you?”

Naruto’s shoulders tensed, and he hugged his knees to his chest even tighter. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Tailed Beast chakra works as a defense mechanism, as long as you can’t control it yourself. Which means that it’ll come out if you’re in danger – or if you’re scared enough that your system _thinks_ you’re in danger.” Kakashi smiled sadly through the entirely new punch to the gut. “That must’ve been one awful dream, huh?”

“Yeah. It… It really was.” Naruto was trembling again. “I dreamt about the night of the Nine-Tails’ attack, except it was _me_ who attacked and killed so many people. I dreamt I killed the Fourth Hokage, and Iruka-sensei’s parents, and m-my own parents…” He hid his face against his knees. “And then I woke up, and then I did _that_ …”

He pointed towards the ceiling above his bed. The plaster there was barely still holding together, torn apart by what looked like claw marks. Kakashi tried his best to keep a calm expression, because Naruto was looking at him to check his reaction, but he was starting to understand what Naruto must be going through. Why he’d thought that he might hurt Kakashi. Crap, Naruto had to learn how to control the Nine-Tails, and soon. Oh, if only Kushina were here…

“I’m really scared I’ll lose control somehow,” Naruto continued quietly, “lose it for real, I mean. And it’s worse to know that I could use the Nine-Tails’ chakra unconsciously, in my sleep – I don’t know if I _dare_ …” He trailed off, and the poor kid looked so utterly helpless, and Kakashi was putting a stop to this _right now_. He was not letting this child go down this spiral, because being scared to go to sleep was an awful thing to have to deal with.

“Okay,” Kakashi said, softly but firmly enough to get Naruto to listen. “You need to stop thinking so much, okay? Focus on what’s going on right now. Where are we?”

Naruto sniffled. He looked confused, but he answered the question regardless. “My… My apartment. Bedroom.”

“Does the Nine-Tails’ chakra have any influence on you right now?”

“No.”

“And how long did it take you to snap out of it and get yourself back under control?”

“One- One or two minutes, I think.”

“I think that’s about right, yeah.” Kakashi nodded, and smiled. “Doesn’t make for a very intimidating rampage, does it? A twelve-year-old walking around and growling for a single minute, maybe two minutes. I don’t think you could really harm someone in that time, or even _find_ someone this late at night.”

Naruto’s eyes widened – Kakashi had made his point. “I guess so.”

Kakashi sighed, because things really weren’t as easy as he’d just made them seem. “Listen, Naruto,” he said, “at this point, there’s nothing I can do to prevent you from subconsciously tapping into the Nine-Tails’ chakra. You’ll learn to control the chakra over time, so that it won’t act without your permission anymore. I’ve been trying to contact a man named Jiraiya who’ll be able to help you with that, but until that time, all I can do is assure you that there’s no reason to be scared.”

Naruto’s eyebrows pinched together in an anxious expression. “But what if I get outside and someone sees me? They- They already think I’m dangerous, and even if I don’t hurt anyone, the villagers might still… talk.”

Kakashi had never felt more like an older brother in his _life_. “I’ll punch them.” At Naruto’s watery laugh, he continued: “And if something truly, horribly goes sideways with the Nine-Tails – I know a guy in ANBU who can hold the beast down, but who won’t harm you. And he’ll punch some villagers, too.” Tenzou was generally too relaxed to punch a civilian, but he could get pretty salty when people took their gossiping too far. “He might be of some help with your ceiling, too, if I asked.” Wood Style was useful like that, although Kakashi wasn’t sure how Tenzou would react to requests for home repairs.

“That’s… okay. You don’t have to bother some awesome ANBU guy to help fix my stupid ceiling.” Naruto’s smile was shaky, but at least he was smiling again. “Thank you, though, sensei. For being here, I mean, and talking some sense into me. I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if you hadn’t showed up. How scared I would’ve gotten.”

To be fair, Kakashi didn’t really want to imagine that, either. He could’ve just _left_ when Naruto asked him to. He could’ve just left his student to cry in the corner of his room until dawn came. He would’ve liked to express this genuine concern for his student’s wellbeing, but what came out of his mouth was: “You’re welcome, I suppose?”

Naruto just shook his head and laughed, and then got up to pull Kakashi into a hug. Kakashi wasn’t _great_ with physical contact, but he tried not to seem too tense anyway, because Naruto clearly really needed a hug after all of this.

“By the way, sensei,” Naruto then said, his voice muffled in Kakashi’s sweater, “your headband is upside down.”

Kakashi just laughed, because yeah, that’s how fast he’d rushed over when he thought that Naruto was in danger.

Kakashi left a little later, when Naruto finally let him go. He didn’t go far, though; instead, he sat down on the roof of Naruto’s apartment, nearby enough to immediately be able to help. But his help wasn’t needed, because Naruto slept soundly, for he was tired and finally at ease.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding the fact that no one else sensed the Nine-Tails’ chakra: in canon, Kakashi is one of the first people who actually senses that the Nine-Tails is nearby on the night that Naruto is born. So in this chapter, he’s the only one who sleeps lightly enough to actually be woken by Kurama’s presence, and also the only one who can actually identify this ‘bad feeling’ as such.
> 
> I don’t have much to say about this chapter, just that I’m really proud of how it turned out. I always wondered why it was that Naruto wasn’t more scared of the Nine-Tails (because I definitely would be if I were in his shoes), and then I figured that he _was_ actually super scared but just didn’t show anyone. And then this chapter happened.
> 
> Next chapter will be all about Sakura! See you then~


	4. The Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jounin-Teacher Would Just Like His Kids To Be More Careful With Themselves, Honestly

It was eight in the evening, and Sakura was training by herself.

She’d stuck around on the training grounds after her team had left, a couple of hours ago. They didn’t know that she was here; or, at least, she hoped they didn’t know. It’d be too humiliating if she had to explain why she was here. She’d much rather train in secrecy.

She wasn’t here for fun. That was evident by the way she clenched her jaws and how raw her throat had become after yelling to herself for so long. By how empty her stomach was – she hadn’t eaten since lunch. She was serious, and she wasn’t leaving until she _succeeded._

The realization had hit her today, but she supposed that it had been waiting for a long time. During their training earlier that day, they’d been practicing their punches on a bunch of trees. They weren’t allowed to use chakra; it was just plain, simple taijutsu.

When her fist first connected with the tree, she hadn’t understood why they were doing this. Nothing happened at all; the tree didn’t budge, and it kind of hurt her hand. Which made sense to her.

She’d asked Kakashi-sensei about it. “What are we supposed to do?” she’d asked. “What’s the goal? We can’t just stand around all day hitting trees, right?”

And Kakashi-sensei had smiled a little, and then he’d gestured towards Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke had dented the tree on his first try. Naruto had splintered the bark, and as Sakura watched, he punched a dent into the tree as well.

It had hit her, then. Her teammates were so much stronger, while she was still so weak. She’d quickly told Kakashi-sensei that she understood, now, as she fought back tears.

So her plan was simple. She was staying here until she, too, could punch a dent into a tree. She wanted to achieve that _ease_ with which the boys threw their powerful punches, while she had only barely chipped the bark on her first try.

It was frustrating work. She’d mostly yelled during the first hour or so, hoping to somehow add more force to her punches that way. A startled chuunin passing by had asked her what she was doing, and she’d snarled at him on reflex.

By the second hour, her muscles had gotten sore. By now, they were mostly numb, just like her mind. Her anger had disappeared, and now she just knew that she had to keep going until the tree would finally give underneath her fist. She’d chipped most of the bark away, but she’d done so with the force of hundreds of punches, and that wasn’t good enough. She couldn’t punch at an enemy for three hours during a battle, hoping to maybe leave more than a bruise.

So she kept going. Her hands hurt. She’d taped them up well beforehand – she wasn’t stupid – but they’d begun throbbing regardless. They’d probably be black and blue tomorrow.

Sakura paused, giving herself a moment to catch her breath. She took the tape off of her hands, just to see the damage. The skin on her knuckles had split; the scrapes stuck painfully to the tape. Maybe it was time to stop.

She chucked the tape onto the ground and sighed deeply. Great. She’d wasted all this time, and it had gotten her nowhere. She was still just as weak.

Her eyes started watering. She angrily wiped at her eyes, noticed how her tears stung in the scrapes on her hands. Why had she even come out here? She felt even worse than before. She was never going to get stronger, and she should’ve just gone home after training.

Her breath rasping in her throat as she screamed, she threw one last punch at the tree.

She’d expected that her hand would hurt – she was punching something hard without any protection, after all – but she didn’t feel her fist connect to the wood. Instead, when her eyes refocused, she noticed that a hand had caught her fist. She recognized the rolled up sleeves of a jounin uniform, the gloves, the familiar white and pink battle scars on his lower arm.

Kakashi-sensei raised his other hand in a peace sign. “Hi.”

“Sensei.” Sakura pulled her hand back. Crap; she’d hoped that she could just leave quietly and pretend this never happened. Then again, she’d probably messed up her chances of that when she’d screamed like a maniac. “Why are you here?”

He shrugged and put his hands into his pockets. “I noticed you stick around after training,” he replied. “Thought I’d check up on you.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Although I’d assumed that you would’ve left by now.”

“I was about to leave, actually.” Sakura hoped that her tone made clear that she didn’t want to talk. She picked up the tape from the ground, which was _stupid_ , because that only drew attention to her hands.

Kakashi frowned at her. “You’ve been training here the whole time?” he asked. “Have you been out here for four hours?”

“Yeah.” She didn’t make eye contact with him. “And I’m… tired, now. So I’m going home.”

She moved to walk away, but Kakashi-sensei held out a hand to stop her. Sakura could only barely keep herself from protesting.

Kakashi’s gaze was heavy; Sakura suddenly felt like he was mad at her for something. He crossed his arms. “I need you to know that it’s really reckless to train by yourself.”

And _that_ was too much on Sakura’s tired mind. “What do you even care?” she snapped. Kakashi flinched minutely, to her satisfaction. “It’s _my_ business what I do with my time outside of team training. If I decide that I need to train more, so that _maybe_ I won’t be the weak link of the team anymore and _maybe_ I won’t feel like a total loser all the time anymore, then that’s _my_ decision.”

“Listen.” Kakashi’s voice was very low. Sakura’s first instinct was to flinch away from him; she clenched her jaws as not to show how intimidated she was. “Actually, I _do_ care. I can’t let you overwork yourself – you’ll create more problems for yourself than you’ll solve. Young bodies aren’t made for intense physical work.”

“Why are you training Sasuke, then?” Sakura yelled back. “What makes _him_ so special? Why does he get to become stronger?”

“That’s not the point--”

“It’s _exactly_ my point!” She was out of breath, huffing through clenched teeth like some sort of wild animal. “Just… Just _shut up_!”

Entirely on instinct and anger, she threw a punch towards Kakashi. He stepped out of the way, so instead, Sakura screamed a curse and hit a tree at full power.

The wood cracked beneath her fist.

She fell to her knees, her initial anger mostly forgotten through her surprise. Her eyes started to spill again; she didn’t try to stop it, this time. Soon, she was actually crying, sitting in the dirt and cradling her hand to her chest.

After a bit, Kakashi kneeled down next to her. “Did that calm you down?” he asked, softly.

Sakura wiped at her eyes with the palms of her hands. “I guess,” she mumbled, hating how nasal her voice sounded. “I’m just… really tired. I’m sorry for yelling.”

“It’s fine.” Kakashi nodded towards the dent in the tree. “I don’t appreciate that that punch was originally aimed at my gut, but it’s whatever.”

Sakura hugged her arms tightly around herself, swallowing down a sob. She hadn’t fully registered her own angry actions, yet. Imagine if she’d actually _hit_ Kakashi-sensei with that punch… Images of internal bleeding and broken ribs flashed before her mind’s eye, and she couldn’t hold back the new tears.

After a moment of hesitation, Kakashi reached out a hand and patted her on the head. “Don’t worry too much about it,” he said. “I’m pretty fast. Most _jounin_ have trouble fighting me. You couldn’t have hit me even if you wanted to.”

Sakura stayed quiet. Kakashi continued to study the dent in the tree. “So is this what you were trying to do?” he asked. “You wanted to get today’s exercise right?”

“Yeah.” She sniffled. “The boys got it right on their first try, while I… Well. It took me all of today’s training and four extra hours to succeed.” She huffed, casting her eyes down. “Kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Not really. It makes sense to get frustrated with your strength when there are others to compare yourself to.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason,” Sakura replied bitterly. “I think it’s logical to get frustrated with your strength when you’re _weak_ like me.”

“You only think you’re weak because your teammates are stronger,” Kakashi said. “Meanwhile, your teammates think they’re dumb because you’re smarter than them.”

“Sasuke isn’t dumber than me.”

“Yes, he is.”

Sakura laughed, despite herself.

“Speaking of Sasuke,” Kakashi said, shifting so that he could look her in the eye, “the reason why I let him train outside of team training, is because I’m keeping an eye on him the entire time. Like I said, you shouldn’t overwork yourself. That’s a surefire way to screw yourself over in the future.”

Sakura thought it over. “That makes sense,” she replied, looking down at her feet. “I shouldn’t have compared myself to Sasuke, anyway. He needs to train his Sharingan. I’m sorry.” She looked up at Kakashi and raised an eyebrow at him. “I have a feeling you’re speaking from experience, by the way.”

“Yeah.” He looked away. “I… used to compare myself to other chuunin a lot. And then to other jounin. I used to overwork myself a lot, trying to get stronger.”

Sakura felt her eyes widen. _Chuunin at age six, jounin at age twelve._ “You did that as a _six-year-old_?”

“I… No. I started doing that when I was eight,” he replied, as if that was any less horrifying. “It was dumb. It’s not right to train full-time when you’re still growing. That’s why the Academy only has physical training in the afternoons, and why genin only train for five or six hours a day.” He huffed. “I get that it’s frustrating. That’s why I came to stop you. When I was younger, I really screwed myself over a couple of times because I trained by myself a lot. It’d be stupid if I let my students do the same thing. Especially since you’re supposed to _learn_ something from me.”

“You’re not going to let me train by myself anymore, are you?”

“That’s right.”

Sakura looked away, feeling disappointed somewhere deep down. She said nothing; she was too tired to argue.

After a second, though, Kakashi cleared his throat and continued: “However, you can always ask me for help. Then, I’ll help you train in a non-reckless way. Just let me know if there’s something you find difficult.” He raised his eyebrow at her. “Deal?”

Sakura found it in herself to smile. “Yeah. Deal.”

“Good.” Kakashi smiled back at her, but then his face twisted into a worried expression. “By the way, is your hand okay? That last punch must have hurt.”

“Oh.” Sakura shrugged and inspected her hand. The skin on her knuckles had split open further, but it didn’t hurt a lot more than before. That was a relief; she could’ve easily broken something with that punch from just now. “I’m fine.”

“Just make sure you clean that, okay?” Kakashi said. “It’s just some superficial wounds, so it’d be stupid to let them get infected.”

“I know.”

“Okay, then.”

They sat there for a bit longer, until the sun started to set and the sky turned pink and orange. By then, the tears on Sakura’s face had dried up, and she was ready to go home.

Kakashi-sensei wished her a good night, and he stressed again that she really shouldn’t train by herself. He didn’t make a threat, but he made the _I’m-watching-you_ sign at her, which was somehow equally horrifying.

Sakura didn’t train by herself again. Instead, she took her sensei’s advice and actually let him teach her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had _so many_ ideas for Sakura’s chapter. I feel like canon has wasted so much potential with her, so there were lots of things that I wanted to show in this scene. Eventually, I decided to focus on her low self-esteem in Part 1 and her realization that the boys are so much stronger than her. At this point in time, she may not be strong yet, but she will be.
> 
> Next chapter, the kids try once again to sneak a peek at Kakashi’s face…


	5. The Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local Hatake Viciously Messes With His Students, Maybe Lets Things Get A Little Out Of Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Tiny note: this chapter is a little weird in terms of how it fits into canon. Just imagine that episode 101 of Part 1 and episode 469 of Shippuuden have already happened (those are the filler episodes about Kakashi’s face), despite the fact that the Chuunin Exams haven’t happened yet. Time is irrelevant when you’re trying to rip your teacher’s mask off.)

Today was the day. Today, Kakashi would show his face to his students.

He’d given that decision lots of thought over the last few weeks, ever since they’d come back from Wave. He’d doubted the decision, at first, because it was _early_ ; some people that he’d known for most of his life, had never seen his face – he especially enjoyed driving Asuma and Tenzou crazy about it – while he’d only known his genin for a mere month-and-a-half.

But in that short time, he’d already put his life on the line _twice_ to protect these kids, and he’d do it again a billion times. And if he had it his way, they were going to be a team for a long, long time. It was the right decision to make. They were probably going to see his face at some point or another, and Kakashi would very much like that moment to be in a non-traumatic situation. (Rin first saw his face while giving him CPR, and Kakashi did _not_ want a repeat of that. Nope.)

Still, it was all kind of nerve-wracking. He could literally count on one hand the living people who knew what he looked like – only Gai and the owners of Ichiraku’s knew – and now he was about to add three more to that tiny group. So now, he was kind of staring himself down in the bathroom mirror, hoping that that would somehow add to his courage.

Honestly, he had little to worry about. There were some wild rumors floating around about his face, and none of them were true; his face looked perfectly normal. But his mask was almost part of his personality at this point. After today, his kids would never look at him the same, and that kind of change was a little intimidating.

Ah, he was just overthinking everything. He just had to--

Wait, what was that?

A loud _thunk_ sounded from his bedroom, like something falling over. Kakashi quickly yanked his mask up and grabbed a kunai from his weapons pouch.

He was glad that he was already fully dressed, because this would’ve been ten times more awkward if he’d rushed out naked. What he found in his bedroom, was all three of his students and a window that had been forced open. Naruto was lying on the floor – that must’ve been the noise he’d heard – and Sasuke was whisper-shouting furiously at him.

“I swear, Naruto,” he hissed, “you’re awful in stealth situations.”

Naruto scowled at him from where he lay on the ground. “Shut up, Sasuke.”

Kakashi put his kunai away and leaned against the doorframe. When his kids still didn’t notice him – they were too busy arguing – he pointedly cleared his throat.

Sakura physically jumped. Naruto and Sasuke promptly stopped arguing to give Kakashi a startled look. “Oh, hi, sensei,” Naruto said, quickly getting up from the floor. “Good morning.”

“What,” Kakashi said slowly, “in the _hell_ are you three doing here?”

Naruto looked at him as if he’d like to hop right back out of the window. “Uhm. Well. So.” He laughed sheepishly, as if that would make this a less confusing situation. “We were kind of hoping you’d still be asleep.”

“Naruto is crap at explaining stuff,” Sasuke said, his face reverting into that frown that showed that he was _incredibly_ embarrassed, “but we were hoping to catch you without your mask on.”

Kakashi blinked at them. “You broke into my apartment – no, specifically, my _bedroom_ ,” he repeated, too flabbergasted to actually be mad, “to try and see my face. While I’m asleep.”

“Well, it sounds extra bad when you say it like that,” Sakura mumbled.

Kakashi put his hands into his pockets, an invisible smirk forming on his face. “Well, you’ll be glad to know that I actually sleep with a mask on,” he said, “and also, that I just thought of a great training exercise for today that I’m _sure_ you’ll like.” His three students physically winced, so he continued smugly: “Meet me at Konoha’s gates in five minutes – you’d better hurry if you want to bring food and water.”

The three of them groaned loudly and jumped back out of the window. Kakashi stayed behind, shaking his head exasperatedly but fondly. Oh, if only his kids had had a little more patience…

They really shouldn’t have given him this chance to mess with them.

The training exercise that he’d thought up for them, was actually very simple. They were going to take a walk in the woods around Konoha. No running, no fighting exercises, just plain old walking. And Kakashi would cheerfully lead them in large circles so that they’d come across _nothing_ interesting in all the six hours that they were going to do this.

The boredom would certainly break Naruto. Sasuke would be deeply affected, too, as soon as he’d realize that he was wasting his time. And when the boys got all mopey and grumpy, Sakura would get annoyed as well.

Fun times. This was what they got for breaking into his apartment.

It was already getting a little warm outside – it was promising to be a very hot day today. That wouldn’t do much to improve his kids’ mood, either. Good.

“Good morning again, my dear genin,” Kakashi sing-songed to his kids. They’d all made it in time, complete with a little backpack each, but they’d clearly been rushing; Sakura was still panting from running home and then here within the limited time that he’d given them. He smiled. “We’re going to take a little walk in the woods, today. Just follow me.”

He lead the way through the gates, his kids following behind like a trio of very guilty baby ducks. They’d been walking for a good ten minutes before one of them even dared to talk.

“Kakashi-sensei,” Sasuke said. “Where are we going?”

“Oh, nowhere in particular,” Kakashi replied, because that was the truth. He smiled. “Walking is training, too, you know.”

Sasuke grumbled something under his breath. Nice – he was already getting annoyed. Only five hours and fifty more minutes to go!

It was Naruto who broke the following silence, with a much more interesting question. “Hey, sensei? Say, if you’re not planning on ever letting us see your face, then I’ve got a question.”

Oh, if only he _knew_. Kakashi was tempted to just pull his mask down right now, but he decided not to – he was still a little mad at his kids for breaking into his apartment. “What is it?”

“You don’t have, like,” Naruto asked, suddenly sounding a little nervous, “some sort of monstrous deformity hidden under your mask, do you? Like, I don’t know, freakishly huge teeth or something? Or a tiny mouth?”

“Naruto!” Sakura hissed at him, pushing at his shoulder. “That’s _rude_!”

Kakashi laughed. “There’s definitely nothing wrong with my mouth.”

“Do you have a really weird face tattoo that you’re desperate to cover up?” Naruto asked.

“I thought you had _one_ question,” Kakashi mused out loud. “Also, no.”

“Mustache?”

“Nah.”

“Maybe lots of acne?” Sakura asked – she was apparently already over her fear of asking rude questions.

That was actually a pretty reasonable question; Kakashi had, unfortunately, found out during his teenage years that facial skin did _not_ react well to being covered all the time. He was very thankful that he’d grown out of that phase of his puberty, because it had _not_ been nice to walk around with three million pimples on his face. “Currently, no.”

“Well,” Sasuke cut in, “if your face is so normal, then why cover it up all the time?”

It was a family trait, actually. Kakashi’s mom had been an Inuzuka, and her teeth had been sharp and big and dangerous like a dog’s – just like all Inuzukas had something vaguely dog-like. She’d been bullied relentlessly for them when she was younger, so she’d taken to covering them up. Kakashi had never known her, but she wore a mask in every picture they owned of her. One day, when Kakashi was three, he’d put a big blue scarf around his face to imitate her, and his dad had smiled so brightly at him. The habit had kind of stuck after that.

But no one except his dad knew those details so specifically, so like _hell_ he was going to tell his students that. “It adds to the fun atmosphere of mystery that I carry around wherever I go.”

“Sure does,” Naruto grumbled under his breath. He then turned to his teammates and whispered, _almost_ too quietly to hear: “We should try to get a look at his face again.”

“Maybe that’s a bad idea,” Sakura whispered back – Kakashi channeled some chakra to his ears so that he could follow their conversation better. “He seems a little mad about our attempt earlier.”

“I bet he’s already onto us, anyway,” Sasuke added. Sharp instinct, that kid.

“I get it, but I’m _bored_ ,” Naruto whined quietly. “I’m just curious. Maybe if we bug him long enough, he’ll take it off just to make us shut up.”

Well, well, well. So the kids were playing mind games of their own. Very good – let them try. Kakashi had been in ANBU for over a third of his life. He could say with certainty that he was better at mind games than his kids were. So he was just going to let this play out for a bit. It was never a bad thing to teach genin a little bit of manipulation.

“Hey, sensei,” Naruto called, at his normal, loud volume – Kakashi fought off a wince when the sound met his still enhanced hearing. “It’s getting pretty hot, even here under the trees. Isn’t it really warm to cover your face?”

What subtlety. Kakashi easily shut down the sloppy attempt at pulling him towards a favorable answer. “It’s not that bad.”

“Really?” Sakura asked him, and she almost sounded a little concerned. Props for her acting skills. “You know you don’t have to act tough in front of us, right?”

Sasuke hummed and agreed: “We’ve seen you _faint_ after a ten-minute-long fight. We’re definitely not under the illusion that you’re tough, sensei, so you really don’t have to pretend.”

“How rude,” Kakashi mumbled under his breath. He liked to think that he was good at emotional manipulation, but these kids were playing _dirty_. “I was telling the truth, actually. I’ve been wearing a mask for twenty-three years – I know how to handle hot weather.” He pulled out his water flask and made a point to turn around and take a sip _through_ his mask. “The trick is to stay hydrated.”

His kids’ faces turned vaguely sour. Sasuke heaved a long-suffering sigh. Kakashi was actually feeling a little sorry for them, so just to humor them, he said: “Speaking of heat and staying hydrated – we’ve been walking for a while, now. Why don’t we take a little break, so we can eat something?”

They stopped and sat down underneath a tree. Kakashi had planned to use this situation to mess with his kids even more, but they were defeated enough at this point that they weren’t even _looking_ at him. He calmly ate the granola bar he’d brought as a snack, and then they went on their way again, this time quietly.

After an hour or so, it was slowly becoming distressing that none of the kids were saying anything. Kakashi considered the possibility that this was another mind game to make him lower his guard, but he quickly waved that thought away. These were twelve-year-old genin – more specifically, they were Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. They weren’t patient enough for a mind game this elaborate.

His pondering was suddenly interrupted by Sakura’s voice, small and trembling. “Uhm, sensei?” she asked, quietly. “I think I need to sit down--”

Kakashi turned around just in time to see her crumple to the ground.

He rushed over to kneel beside her, a worried question already forming on his lips, and it was only _then_ that he realized that he’d been tricked.

“Get him!” Naruto roared, already making twenty-plus clones spring into existence. They all, and Sasuke and Sakura, made a simultaneous grab for his face. Reflexively, Kakashi body-flickered away and stared at his students from a high tree branch.

Twenty Naruto clones shook their fist at him before dispersing. “C’mon, sensei! You can’t just run away – that’s _cheating_!” the original Naruto shouted.

“No,” Kakashi replied. His tone was cold, and he meant it. He hopped down from the tree and gave his kids a serious look. “You know, it’s all well and good to try and get to see my face – I know what I signed up for when I became a jounin-sensei. But this went too far.”

He wasn’t even mad about the idea to jump him; that plan wouldn’t have worked in a million years. What had ticked him off, was the split second of _genuine worry_ that he’d felt when he saw Sakura fall down.

He frowned at his students. “I was planning to let you go home at three, but I think it’s more fitting if you walk until sunset.”

The kids didn’t even protest, and so they continued their walk. They didn’t try any more tricks – Kakashi felt like he’d gotten his point across. The subject of his face wasn’t mentioned again, and the atmosphere slowly became truly peaceful for the first time that day.

When the sun set, Kakashi lead them towards a glade and made a campfire. Which was technically forbidden, but then again, who was going to stop him? He’d brought some sausages, sealed away in a scroll so they wouldn’t go bad, because he’d had a hunch that they might be outside until late.

As the four of them cooked the sausages over the fire, Sakura turned to Kakashi. “Sensei?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“I’m…” She looked away. “I’m sorry for tricking you, earlier today. When I pretended to faint, I mean.”

“I’m sorry about that, too,” Naruto said. “And for breaking into your apartment.”

Sasuke nodded. “We were being pretty crappy all day.”

“Aw.” Kakashi laughed. “It’s fine – I think you learned your lesson. Just don’t do it again, yeah?”

“Yeah.” The three of them nodded.

“Good.” And, just because he was really glad that his kids themselves had realized what they’d done wrong, Kakashi looked his students in the eye and then pulled his mask down to take a big bite of his sausage.

The sausage, unfortunately, was still very hot. This Kakashi, unfortunately, was merely a clone – because Kakashi definitely had better things to do than walk around in the woods all day. He dispersed immediately when the food burned his mouth.

The _real_ Kakashi wasn’t that far away; after a whole day of lazing off, he’d come out here to check on his students and his clone. He was hidden in the trees, far away enough that his kids wouldn’t see him, but definitely close enough to hear their confused screaming.

He smirked to himself and turned back around. He was going to bed; it had been a long day, after all. His kids could find the way back to Konoha themselves. That’s what they got for being such little shits all day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After all the highly emotional stuff from the past four chapters, this was just plain old _fun_ to write. It’s nice to focus on the incredibly chaotic energies of every character at the same time XD
> 
> Next chapter is, at last, the last chapter: the +1! The kids get their chance to shine and show that they truly care about their sensei. See you then~


	6. +1: The Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> +1: Contrary To Popular Belief, Team Seven Does Actually Care About Their Leader

Every once in a while, Team Seven had a movie night.

Naruto had come up with the idea first, and he was really glad that he had. It was definitely fun to come up with group activities and then drag the rest of the team along. And it had also been a good decision to drag Kakashi-sensei along as well, because the guy spent far too much of his time looking bored, and Naruto thought he deserved something fun to do.

The four of them gathered at Sasuke’s house at the Uchiha compound; he was the only one with a TV _and_ enough space for all of them. Sakura went by the library in the afternoon to borrow a movie, and Naruto was in charge of snacks. Kakashi’s only task was to show up, and he’d actually never failed to do so – Naruto strongly suspected that he secretly just liked watching movies with his team, even though he kept insisting that he was just there for the snacks.

And so, the team movie nights became a thing. And they were _serious business._ It was very important that Naruto calculated the right amount of snacks for everyone, so he scraped together every bit of focus that he owned for it. Sometimes, they agreed that the winner of a sparring session could pick a movie, and that meant that they would hold _nothing_ back. Wars were waged for the fate of movie night.

It was serious enough business that Kakashi even tried to be _punctual_. Surprisingly enough, he usually made it on time – well, up until their latest movie night.

That time, Kakashi had gotten back from a mission later than expected. _Much_ later. The movie night was supposed to start at eight. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had been waiting for him to show up, but he hadn’t arrived until eleven. _Eleven_!

Naturally, the kids had gotten really mad at him. That night, they didn’t get to have their movie night at all, because it was late and Sakura’s parents wanted her home before midnight. Naruto doubted that they would’ve been able to have fun even if they _had_ watched the movie, because everyone was so pissed. Kakashi had seemed pretty guilty about the whole thing, though, so he’d promised to be on time next time.

But…

“He’s late. Again.”

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were sitting in Sasuke’s living room, waiting. Naruto and Sakura sat at the coffee table; Naruto was boredly eating some popcorn from the bag that he’d brought. Sasuke sat at the TV, trying to get the VHS tape to work.

Sakura was frowning at her watch, and turned the clock towards Naruto so that he could see as well. It was only ten minutes after the time they’d agreed to meet, so Naruto just shrugged.

“Eh, that’s not even that bad. Just give him a few more minutes, and _then_ we’ll get annoyed.”

Sakura nodded, but the corners of her mouth were pulling down already. “Do you think he’ll show up at all, this time?”

“He’ll be there. He promised.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that he’ll be here,” Sasuke called from next to the TV. “The question is _when_ he’ll show up. If he’s going to show up near midnight again, then it’s better if he doesn’t show up at all.”

“Wow,” Naruto replied, “I hadn’t realized that my teammates are such pessimists. Here, have some popcorn; you’ll feel better.” He threw a piece of popcorn towards Sasuke’s head, hoping to hit him with it, but he just caught it and ate it.

Sasuke stuck out his tongue at Naruto as a response, but Naruto wasn’t even paying attention, anymore – there was noise coming from the front door, which they’d left open to let in some cool air, because it was very warm inside. Naruto got up and sprinted into the hallway.

And, yeah! Sure enough, there was Kakashi, toeing off his sandals at the door. He was leaning against the doorway and gave a sheepish wave.

“You’re late!” Naruto shouted, pointing at him dramatically. He wasn’t actually angry, though; he was mostly excited to see his sensei. Now, the team was complete!

“Ah, but I’m only a _little_ late,” Kakashi replied with a half-shrug. “My mission was pretty intense. I wanted to change into clean clothes.” Sure enough, instead of his uniform, he was wearing a big, dark-colored sweater and pajama pants. _Boring_ pajama pants, in standard shinobi blue. Naruto was wearing bright orange pajamas, and they were loads cooler.

“Okay, I guess that’s fair,” he replied. “Anyway, come in! We’ve got popcorn, and _I_ picked out a movie, so it’s gonna be great.”

As Naruto watched, Kakashi nodded and stepped into the hallway. He was moving slowly, carefully. This wasn’t his normal lazy way of walking; something was _off._

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?”

“I don’t know, sensei. You seem a little… wobbly, or something. You didn’t get hurt or anything, did you?”

The look on Kakashi’s face was _weird._ “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied with a huffed laugh. He brushed past Naruto, towards the living room. “You didn’t start the movie without me, did you?”

Naruto accepted that the subject had been changed, but he was _definitely_ keeping an eye on Kakashi. “No, we didn’t start yet. It’s no fun if you miss part of the movie.”

Sakura and Sasuke were still waiting in the living room. Sakura waved at Kakashi as soon as he walked in; Sasuke just nodded at him. “So you _did_ make it, this time,” he said, clicking the VHS tape into the player. “Good. We can start, then.”

Naruto plopped down on the floor next to where Sakura sat, and Sasuke got up to turn off the lights. Kakashi all but sank down on the couch behind them, huffing like an old man.

Sakura quirked an eyebrow at him – at least Naruto wasn’t the only one who thought he was acting strange. “Tired, sensei?”

“Yeah,” Kakashi replied, closing his eyes for a moment. “Difficult mission.”

“Did you eat?” Sakura asked, holding up the bag of popcorn. “We’ve got plenty of food – Naruto bought his weight’s worth in snacks again.”

Naruto grinned to himself, because his miscalculation in the amount of snacks had not actually been an accident, this time. But Kakashi just shook his head. “No, thanks. I’m not really hungry.”

Okay, that was weird _again_! Kakashi never turned down snacks, even if Naruto had never actually seen him eat them. But then, Sasuke sat down at the coffee table as well, told them all to shut up, and started the movie.

Naruto had picked out some adventure movie; it was nothing too complicated, but the summary had sounded pretty cool. And the movie definitely would’ve been fun under any other circumstances, but now, Naruto was too distracted to properly pay attention to the story. Because something was up with Kakashi-sensei. And Naruto kind of didn’t believe that he was _just_ tired.

Behind him, Kakashi shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Naruto shared a look with his other teammates, as subtly as he could. Sakura was looking worried as well, and Sasuke was frowning, glancing towards Kakashi. Good – they were all on the same page. Not that that actually helped, because Kakashi had already once denied that something was wrong, and he’d probably do it again. And Sasuke and Sakura knew that, too. They were probably going to need some very delicate plan if they wanted Kakashi to spill the truth…

“Hey, sensei. Something’s up with you. What’s going on?”

… _or_ Sasuke could just get straight to the point.

He’d paused the movie and had turned around to Kakashi, his arms crossed and his expression challenging.

Kakashi blinked at him, clearly trying to act clueless but too pale to successfully pull it off. “What?”

“We noticed that you seem _off_ ,” Sakura said, picking her words a little more carefully than Sasuke had. “Did something happen during your mission?”

“And don’t lie!” Naruto added, because it needed to be said.

For a moment, Kakashi just stared back at them. He was sitting in an excessively slumped position, his arms draped across his stomach in an attempt to seem casual, but it didn’t really work. After that moment, he huffed a laugh and shook his head. “Guess I should’ve expected that it wouldn’t be this easy to fool you,” he said, and carefully pulled up his sweater to expose his side.

Naruto winced on reflex. Kakashi’s abdomen had been hastily wrapped in bandages, and there was a large stain of blood on his left side. Sasuke swore under his breath and got up to turn the lights back on.

In the light, Kakashi’s expression could be recognized as a wry smile. He somehow seemed annoyed that the rest of his team had found out that he was hurt, as if he’d meant to keep it a secret that he was _bleeding_. As if he’d meant to keep lying if they hadn’t found out themselves.

“Talk,” Sasuke ordered from the other side of the room. It had been a while since Naruto had seen his expression this stormy. “What happened? Do you need help?”

“I’m okay,” Kakashi replied quickly. “Really; I can handle so much worse.” He straightened up, immediately wincing. Naruto and Sakura winced along; Sasuke bared his teeth in an angry grimace. Kakashi, recognizing the growing tension in the room, continued: “An enemy just landed a lucky hit on me with a sword. I already checked out the wound, and it’s really not that bad. I was planning to stop by the hospital when the movie night’s over.”

“Why didn’t you go right away?” Naruto asked. It was getting harder and harder to understand any of this.

Kakashi gave a small smile. “I promised I’d be here on time, remember?”

That felt like a punch to the gut for reasons that Naruto couldn’t quite put into words. Sakura, next to him, had an equally hurt expression on her face. “Did you really put something as _dumb_ as a movie night above your own health?” she asked him, quietly and sharply.

“I- I…” Kakashi sighed and looked away. “I felt really bad when I disappointed you, last time. I just didn’t want to ruin your movie night again, and I was definitely going to run late if I went to the hospital. And I’m really sorry that I lied to you; I just thought…”

“You thought _what_?” Sasuke snapped. Kakashi flinched away from him, but Sasuke didn’t care enough to stop yelling. “What _were_ you thinking?” he continued, his face rapidly going red. “That it’d make us happy if you bled to death in my living room? Did you really think that we’re that selfish? That we’d rather let you walk around injured than have you be a few minutes late to our stupid movie night? Shut up.”

“Sasuke.” Kakashi stared him straight in the eye, frowning. “It’s really not that bad.”

“That’s not the point!” Sasuke shouted back. “Enough people have died in this house – you _cannot_ scare us like that!”

This was getting out of hand; Sasuke was clearly very serious, if he was talking about his family. Kakashi clenched his jaws, but his voice was quiet when he spoke.

“I’m sorry for ruining your movie night,” he repeated, slowly, and pulled his sweater back down. “But I told you that I’m _fine_ and that’s that. Please put the movie back on.”

Naruto and Sakura shared a worried look – it wouldn’t solve anything if they just pretended that everything was fine. But Kakashi was injured, and tired, and he was being yelled at and very clearly reaching the limit of his patience. So when no one made any move to un-pause the movie, Kakashi got up himself and reached for the remote control on the table.

And as he bent down, he immediately flinched and grabbed at his side.

Naruto watched with wide eyes as some blood welled up from underneath Kakashi’s hands and dripped onto the floor. His wound was torn open again. Sasuke started forward, the angry look on his face replaced by an alarmed one. Kakashi seemed to have forgotten his frustration as well – he hissed through his teeth and pressed his hands tighter against his side, trying to stop the bleeding. It didn’t seem to be working very well.

“You said it wasn’t that bad!” Sasuke shouted. His voice was slightly higher with panic.

“Stop yelling,” Sakura said to him. “We need to focus. We should stop the bleeding, and then we need to get to the hospital. Sasuke, do you have medical supplies here somewhere?”

He gritted his teeth and nodded. “I’ll get them,” he replied, running off.

Sakura turned to Kakashi. “Sensei,” she said, “can you sit back down?”

He nodded. The visible part of his face was even paler than before. “Yeah.” He carefully lowered himself onto the couch. Some blood dripped onto the fabric.

“Naruto, you help him apply pressure to the wound, okay?” Sakura said. Naruto did as much – Kakashi made a small, choked noise when Naruto pressed his hands against the wound.

Kakashi looked away. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “about all of this.”

Sakura shook her head at him. “You’ve said enough, and so have we. Let’s please just focus on getting you healed up.”

Sasuke soon returned with a first aid kit – the bag of popcorn on the coffee table was shoved aside to make room for the medical supplies. Sakura was the most careful out of the three of them, so she was the one who carefully peeled away the blood-soaked bandages and took a look at the wound. It was, indeed, just a shallow cut – but it was thirty centimeters long and bleeding a _lot_. Naruto pressed a big wad of bandage against the wound to help stop the bleeding.

When Kakashi was no longer dripping blood, Sakura quickly and neatly bandaged the cut. The room was silent, except for the humming of the TV and the barely-stifled groans that came from Kakashi whenever Sakura tightened the bandages. Naruto and Sasuke stood to the side, because they were no good with this sort of thing. Sasuke nervously chewed on his lip the whole time; Naruto wondered if he felt bad for yelling earlier.

Still silently, the four of them then put on their sandals and walked to the hospital. The hospital was only fifteen minutes away, but it was still a challenge to keep Kakashi upright the whole way. He no longer insisted that he was fine – the blood loss was clearly getting to him. By the time they’d reached the hospital, he was stumbling and out of breath, and Naruto and Sasuke had to physically keep him from falling over.

Sakura told the medical-nin at the front desk what had happened, and someone else came to take Kakashi away to another room. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke stayed behind in the waiting room, waiting.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, who was biting his lip again. “Are you still mad?” he asked him – he needed to know what kind of Hell was going to break loose when Kakashi’d come back in a moment.

Sasuke shrugged, and then shook his head. “Not really,” he replied. “Kakashi’s a dumbass, but I’ve told him that already and I don’t like repeating myself. He just needs to get his priorities straight – he thinks he’s the least important person on Earth. Which is stupid.”

Sakura nodded tiredly. “That’s the long and short of it, yeah. He’ll probably feel guilty for messing up our plans, too.”

“Probably,” Naruto agreed. The idea made him feel a little sad; he really didn’t want Kakashi to feel guilty about stuff that he couldn’t help. It was even sadder to know that Kakashi would most likely beat himself up about the whole thing as soon as he was alone. If only there was something that Naruto could do to make this night a little less horrible and crappy--

“Hey, actually,” he said, a grin forming on his face, “guys, I’ve got an idea.”

Not long after, the door to the waiting room slid open, revealing Team Seven’s sensei. He was standing up straight again, and his face was a much healthier color than before. Naruto jumped up from his chair and ran up to him, trying to read his expression.

“Are you okay, now, sensei?” he asked.

Kakashi nodded. “Yeah. Much better.” He put his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants and sighed. “Listen, guys. I’m really sorry for ruining your night – _again._ I really didn’t mean to, and if you want, we can finish the movie some other time…”

“Actually,” Naruto said with a grin, “sensei, we were thinking. Maybe we could finish the movie now.”

“If you want,” Sakura added. “My parents want me home by twelve, but I’ve decided that they can wait.”

“Let’s make at least _part_ of tonight a little normal,” Sasuke said.

Kakashi huffed a laugh. He sounded surprised, but in a relieved kind of way. “You know what,” he replied, “that’s actually a really good idea.”

The movie wasn’t finished until half past one, but no one really minded that it had gotten so late, because it was nice to relax for a bit after such a hectic evening. Kakashi apologized to Sasuke for bleeding on his couch, to which Sasuke responded that he’d cleaned blood off of his furniture before and he could do it again. Which sounded vaguely like a threat, but that was just what Sasuke was like. Kakashi also ate his fair share of snacks, because nearly bleeding out apparently made a person very hungry. Naruto didn’t care; those snacks weren’t going to eat themselves, anyway.

Because it was so late at night, Kakashi volunteered to walk Naruto and Sakura home and help explain to Sakura’s parents what had happened. So they wished Sasuke a good night and then left for home.

Team Seven definitely had the worst luck in all of Konoha. Even a simple movie night could go very wrong with these four people, not to even _mention_ missions. But they could count on each other, and that was the most important thing, right?

-END-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. That was… That was it. Already.
> 
> It sure was a journey to write this fic. This chapter was actually the first chapter I wrote, although the original was from Kakashi’s POV and pretty different, since I hadn’t decided yet that it was going to fit into a 5+1 fic. (I’ve posted the original version of this chapter [over here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443138), if you’re interested :3 )
> 
> I wrote the first version of this chapter in May, I think. It’s now _September_. Since May, I’ve finished the internship that I was doing at the time, my month of summer vacation has passed, and I’ve been in college for almost a month already. Oh, how time flies~
> 
> Anyway – enough about me! Thank you so much for reading this story, and thank you even more for apparently enjoying it enough to make it to this last chapter! :D Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of this fic; I really love reading your comments!! I really don’t know yet when I’ll post again, as college’s keeping me pretty busy, but I will be back, and that’s a promise!! See you then!


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